Wow...May and June turned out to be extremely hectic. Our poor World Music Exploration came to a dead halt with the regular stream of recitals, exams and music festivals.

Let's see if I can start making up for it. If you are looking for fun ways to keep your music playing skills up during the summer, check out some of these ideas that my students and I have come up with:

National Anthems: one of my beginner students is a history buff. He came up with the idea of learning various national anthems throughout the summer. I helped him out with the first three. I look forward to hearing what else he tackles during the summer break.

Video Games: Two students (siblings) are HUGE video game buffs. They both picked three video game themes to work on, which we started during the last two weeks of lessons. For the younger one, it's a huge step up in playing level. I am banking on the fact that these are some of his fave themes to motivate him to overcome some of his note-reading/coordination challenges.

Composing: Some of my students enjoy composing. I've given them some info on songwriting contests to help sweeten the pot.

Performance Sets: A couple of my recreational play students are building performance sets to play for family and friends. The one in high school has picked three pop ballads that she likes to work on. Another, who loves performing, has picked a nice selection of jazz and pop songs to work on (for piano solo and voice/piano).Another student of mine likes playing HK-Pop ballads. I like quizzing her on what the song is about and the movies they are from.

Getting a Head Start on the Next Level: Two of my advanced students have opted to get a jump start on the next grade. They are (hopefully) building their project timeline and have selected three pieces to start working on, on top of their technical requirements.

Summer Lessons/Workshops: Four of my students have opted to take some lessons throughout July. One is writing a theory exam in August. Another is playing catch-up after a six-month hiatus. Student #3 is preparing for Adult Piano Camp. Student #4 has had practicing consistency challenges throughout the year, so we're hoping that she'll be able to make some headway without school getting in the way.

I've got my own summer projects to work on as well. Here are a few of them:

Start working on Rameau's "Suite #5 in G+/g"-: I've wanted to sink my teeth into this one for months.

Work through my advanced students' repertoire: Some of them have picked songs I'm not familiar with, so I too much work to get a good feel for them.